MAUSOLEUM OF MOHAMMAD ALEE.

311

which has of late crept into the religion of the Prophet, and to extinguish which the Wahabees have made such fierce and zealous endeavours. These objects are now guarded with more than ordinary strictness, and owing to those places being less frequented by Franks than others in the city, we were allowed to enter but few. There was one, however, that had for us a greater interest, being the tomb where the present ruler purposes to take up his final abode, and into this we procured a ready admission. A handsome court-yard, adorned with gardens and well-grown trees, surrounded the building, which, on our entrance, disclosed to us a scene we were perfectly unprepared for. We were conducted into a large and well lit chamber, which, strange to say, was in the form of a cross. In the centre of this was a row of tombs in white marble, constructed in the usual Turkish style. The slele, or head-stone at the end of each beautifully carved, and adorned with flowers, and verses of the Koorán in relief, gilt on an azure ground, and surmounted by the head-dress expressive of the sex and rank of the deceased, who were all the different members of Mohammad Alee's family. Several splendid chandeliers hung from the arched roof; the floor between the tombs was covered with the most costly Persian carpets, in which we sunk literally ankle deep, and copies of the Koorán lay open on stands in several places. Many of the tombs were strewed with flowers, not

312

ANCIENT CUSTOMS.

yet withered, and the apartment was well lit from windows in the European style, furnished with splendid silken curtains. At one end of the chamber is a space left for his highness; and it is a spot he frequently visits, as beside it lie the remains of that wife to whom he was so long and devotedly attached. No less than thirty or forty persons have been interred in this place, some of whom were of the family of Ibrahim Básha. The greatest care and attention is bestowed to preserve the neatness and order of this tomb, so perfectly different from the damp, neglected state in which such places are left with us.

On the top of one of the mosques attached to a tomb near this, we were shown a small model of a boat, where food and water are daily supplied by the priests for the birds of the neighbourhood; a practice still continued from the days of Herodotus. Most of these tombs belonged to the Turkish nobility at Cairo, and from this place to the city we passed through thousands of tombs, the burial-places of the present inhabitants; their white glistening appearance darkened in places by groups of mourning friends, or passing funerals.

25th. To-day we went to inspect two of the most revolting and disgusting sights at Cairo-the slave-market, and the mad-house.

On reaching the door of the latter, which was originally a mosque, we were stopt by our conductor, to purchase a few cakes of coarse

bread, a supply of which is always kept in the adjoining porch for supplying the visiters, who thus become a principal, though precarious means of supporting its wretched inmates. We were led through a narrow passage, where all was still and silent as the tomb; a few steps farther, and we were introduced into a large oblong room, when a yell arose of the most unearthly kind my ears were ever assailed by-so startling, that some of our party involuntarily drew back with horror. Our sight-our smell-our hearing-were overwhelmed with a combination of disgusting realities, such as I believe no other place can exhibit. Around this apartment were arranged a number of dens, about four feet square, closed in front with massive iron gratings. In each of these gloomy, filthy cells, was a human being, perfectly naked, or with the remnant of the tattered rag he may have worn on his entrance years before, fantastically tied about some part of his person. His hair and beard long and matted ; his nails grown into talons; emaciated; covered with vermin, and coated with unutterable filth; an iron collar rivetted about his neck, binding him by a massive chain either to a ring in the wall, or connecting him through a circular aperture with his fellow maniac in the adjoining cell.

Upon our entrance each-like a ravenous animal in a menagerie, when the keeper arrives with food-roused from his lair or his lethargy, and

rushed with savage wildness to the grating, extending a withered hand for the expected morsel. The foam of frenzied agony was on every lip; the fire of maniac fury was in every eye, and the poor madman's yell softened into the jabber of satisfaction as each in turn snatched his morsel, and devoured it with a growl I can only liken to a tiger's.

Our pity is raised, and all our tender sympathies awakened, for the poor harmless idiot, or melancholy madman; but we must tremble before the outbreak of the violent and raging maniac.

I will not disgust my readers with a recital of the sickening scene I witnessed in the female department, where the frown and whip of the savage keeper rendered unnecessary the chain, the collar, or the grating.

Even with the care and attention shown to those unfortunates in our own country, the sight of madness is one of the most humiliating and pitiable we can witness; but here, where no pains are taken to improve their condition; no care for their wants, and no medical skill to inquire into the causes of their malady, or the possibility of their cure, it is a truly awful spectacle. I need hardly say, that recovery Indeed it would be a miracle, as the first glimmerings of returning reason must be instantly and completely destroyed on the patient finding himself immured in a dungeon, replete with such horrors.

is rare.

REFLECTIONS ON INSANITY.

315

Few travellers who have visited this establishment but have expressed their opinion upon the state in which it is kept.

Of this Mr. Wilkinson says:-" Though conducted in a disgraceful manner by its present directors, and inferior managers, we cannot but highly appreciate the humanity of Sooltan Qula ́son, almost the only Mooslim king or governor of Egypt, who set on foot a charitable institution for the benefit of the people. By his orders the patients, whatever might be the nature of their complaint, were regularly attended by medical men, and nurses attached to the establishment; and their minds were relieved by the introduction of a band of music, which played at intervals on a platform in the court of the interior. But the neglect and embezzlement of the directors would have reduced the whole building to a ruined condition had it not been for the benevolence of Sayd el Mahroóque, who undertook the necessary repairs, and detected the misappropriation of its funds."

This institution, called Morostán, is one of considerable antiquity at Cairo, where for many years it was the only charitable establishment-it was founded in 1280, by the celebrated El Quælæm e Naser Mohammad II. It is astonishing that there are so few insane among a people so excitable and imaginative as the Mooslims-the only cause I can assign is their religion of fatalism. The "Allah Keriem"-God's will be done-is a disposition that is not very favourable to their workings of insanity.